The present disclosure relates to drive devices for driving display panels, such as plasma display panels, liquid crystal display panels, etc.
There are known display panels including a plurality of scan lines and a plurality of signal lines, which intersect each other. Examples of such display panels include flat panel displays (FPDs), such as plasma display panels (PDPs), liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, electroluminescent (EL) panels, etc.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-154632 describes an example signal which is used to drive a scan line. A drive device for driving a display panel needs to generate an output signal for driving each scan line. As an output circuit for generating the output signals, a circuit is commonly used which includes two switching elements connected in series between a power supply and a ground.
However, because the capacitive load of the display panel needs to be instantaneously charged and discharged, and the number of output signals has been increasing with the increase in the number of pixels in the display panel in recent years, the proportion of the circuit area of the switching elements in the drive device has been increasing.
When a plasma display panel etc. is driven, the drive device may change all the output signals simultaneously from a low potential to a high potential. In such a case, a large amount of current flows from a power supply to the capacitive load of the display panel. Therefore, noise may occur in the power supply voltage, or the power supply voltage may temporarily decrease, so that the control of the display panel may be adversely affected.